Posts Tagged ‘mob mentality’

Sparked, perhaps, by the inundation of public outcry, and aided by the girlfriend of one of the attackers giving up their names, the Chicago police have arrested the people they believe are responsible for Sunday afternoon’s mauling of a Bridgeport, Chicago high school senior. One of the attackers is being charged as an adult. One of the attackers was a girl.

This case is developing more bizarre twists than an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. The girlfriend of “the main attacker” posted two videos attempting to justify the horrific attack. At 4:00 deep into the first video, she “reasons” “…in a way, think about it…if you were attacked by 20 people, with you and your sibling alone, how would you feel? And, in a way, wouldn’t you want to get revenge? Even if it’s just on one of them?” Mob mentality at its best.

She speaks often, particularly in the second video, of “another side” of the story, a side where apparently the victim in this attack was allegedly a part of an Asian gang who had earlier carried out an attack on the very ones who attacked him. It’s mind-boggling to me that we’ve reached this point as a nation. I don’t understand that gang culture. I never will.

In some states, videotaping an attack such as the one witnessed here and not doing anything to intervene makes you an accessory to the crime. Apparently, that’s not the case in Illinois. Whomever the young man is who did the videotaping should be charged as well, in my opinion.

At the root of this senseless violence, and brutal attack, is racial hatred. Either way you look at it, it comes back to that. If the victim WASN’T part of an Asian gang who allegedly carried out an earlier attack on members of the attacking group seen in the video, then it’s purely a racial attack and therefore a hate crime. Even if he WAS part of this gang, there are still race issues that needs to be addressed. Quickly. If it’s all true, then Chicago has a serious race problem on their hands. (or, am I late on that?) Latinos vs. Asians? Blacks vs. Whites? What happened to equality? How can the girl on camera talk so flippantly about the “FOBS”, or “fresh off the boat”, when she is off foreign decent, herself? And, while I’m shaking that tree, how can ANY of us living in this country talk about immigrants, legal or illegal, unless we’re of Native American decent? Other than that group of people, everyone in this country is an immigrant or descendent thereof.

Regardless of what she says in her two “justification” videos, I stand by what I said initially: this was a very brutal attack, a hate crime, and it should be handled as such. All of the ones involved, including the camera holder, should be prosecuted to the absolute fullest extent of the law. One of those kicks to the head, absorbed by the victim, taken at the wrong or a slightly different angle could’ve killed him. ZERO TOLERANCE.